Tony Robbins

Tony Robbins is an entrepreneur, #1 NY Times best-selling author, philanthropist, and the nation’s #1 life and business strategist. For more than 4 decades, more than 50 million people have enjoyed the warmth, humor and transformational power of his business and personal development events. He’s the nation’s #1 life and business strategist.

Author of six internationally bestselling books, including the recent New York Times #1 best-seller MONEY: Master the Game and UNSHAKEABLE, Mr. Robbins has empowered more than 50 million people from 100 countries through his audio, video and life training programs. He created the #1 personal and professional development program of all time, and more than 4 million people have attended his live seminars.

Mr. Robbins is the chairman of a holding company comprised of more than 50 privately held businesses with combined sales exceeding $6 billion a year. He has been honored by Accenture as one of the “Top 50 Business Intellectuals in the World,” by Harvard Business Press as one of the “Top 200 Business Gurus,” and by American Express as one of the “Top Six Business Leaders in the World” to coach its entrepreneurial clients. Fortune’s recent cover article named him the “CEO Whisperer,” and he has been named in the top 50 of Worth Magazine’s 100 most powerful people in global finance for three consecutive years.

He is a leader called upon by leaders, and has worked with 3 US presidents, top entertainers –from Aerosmith to Green Day, to Usher and Pitbull, as well as athletes like Serena Williams, Andre Agassi and the Golden State Warriors. Billionaire business leaders seek his advice as well; casino magnate Steve Wynn and Salesforce.com founder Marc Benioff are among those grateful for his coaching.

As a philanthropist, through his partnership with Feeding America, Mr. Robbins has provided over 500 million meals in the last 5 years to those in need. He is on track to provide 1 billion meals over the next 5 years. He has also initiated programs in more than 1,500 schools, 700 prisons, and 50,000 service organizations and shelters.  He provides fresh water to 250,000 people a day in India in order to fight waterborne diseases, the number one killer of children in that country.

Megan Henshall, CMP, DES

Brian Labus, PhD, MPH, REHS

Brian Labus is an infectious disease epidemiologist and Assistant Professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas School of Public Health. His research interests include outbreak investigation, disease surveillance and the use of social media to detect and investigate health problems in the community.

Prior to joining UNLV in 2015, he spent 15 years at the Southern Nevada Health District as the Senior Epidemiologist, where he was responsible for leading outbreak investigations, conducting disease surveillance activities, and the development of public health informatics projects. Has was the lead public health investigator for the largest outbreak of healthcare-acquire hepatitis C in United States history. In March of 2020, he was appointed to Governor Sisolak’s COVID-19 Medical Advisory Team. He received a Bachelor’s degree in biology from Purdue University, a Master of Public Health degree in infectious diseases from the School of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley, and a PhD in public health with a concentration in occupational and environmental health from the School of Community Health Sciences at UNLV.

Joe Schwinger

Joe Schwinger is Co-Founder and CEO of MeetingPlay, an event technology company forging meaningful connections for Fortune 500 companies including Marriott, PepsiCo and Bristol-Myers Squibb. With a background in ecommerce, he has extensive experience providing customer-facing solutions on a global scale.

Joe was named to the 2018 list of 40 under 40 by Connect Corporate and the elite list of BizBash 500. In 2019, he was again named in the BizBash 1000 list of Top People in the U.S. Event Industry.

Staci Mellman

Staci Mellman leads the development of the Florida tourism brand, integrated marketing initiatives, and long-term strategic planning. As the CMO, she ensures that every initiative is strategically driven, measurable, and effective. Since joining the VISIT FLORIDA team, Mellman has been an integral part of developing the organization’s strategic plan, shifting to an audience segmentation approach, and evolving Florida’s brand advocacy platform, LoveFL. Mellman is a seasoned creative marketer and event professional with a proven record of developing strategic marketing initiatives that increase awareness and brand value. 

Mike Waterman

Mike Waterman is currently the  Chief Sales Officer for Visit Orlando and started in August of 2019. Prior to that he spent 4 years as President & CEO of  Visit Houston. The hospitality veteran spent more than 26 years with Marriott prior to joining Visit Houston and most recently was Regional Vice President for the South West Region. Waterman has more than 30 years in the industry travel.

Becky Blaine

Becky has spent 16 years promoting tourism and hospitality in Arizona, including spearheading PR  and marketing efforts for the iconic Arizona Biltmore Resort before coming to the Arizona Office of Tourism. In her current role as Deputy Director, she guides AOT international marketing efforts, overseeing the media relations and trade divisions, and is responsible for long-term strategic planning.

Juliet Tripp

Juliet is your go-to-girl for all things event strategy and personal development.

With 10 years’ experience in the industry, she’s Senior Events Manager at Chemical Watch, working on International and Virtual B2B conferences.  Juliet is a professional speaker and moderator, and has an events blog at juliettrippevents.com. She’s also International Growth and Strategy Director for the Female Hospitality Network, a Conference News 30 under 30 award winner, and a mentee in the Fast Forward 15 Class of 2020/21 and empowers ambitious eventprofs to reach their goals through her membership and community: Event Goal Getters.

Pierre Metrailler

Pierre joined SpotMe in 2001 and became CEO in 2016. In 2004, after a research position on distributed algorithms at NTT Japan, he returned to SpotMe and led the pivot from proprietary hardware to SaaS, making SpotMe the leading event app and virtual event platform.

Pierre holds an MSc in communication systems from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and is also a graduate of INSEAD. He enjoys sky running and ski mountaineering in the Swiss Alps.

Susan Nunn Williams

Susan Nunn Williams is the Vice President of Destination Experience at Visit Tampa Bay, Tampa’s Destination Marketing Organization, responsible for inspiring the world to love Tampa Bay! For the past 18 years Susan has been involved in the largest events to impact Tampa – 3 Super Bowls, The Republican National Convention, countless sports events, and too many conventions and meetings to count.

 In her role at Visit Tampa Bay she closely liaisons with the Tampa Bay Sport Commission, The Film Commission, the City and the County to land large events and produce many of the affiliated events.  Susan also manages the Convention Services team, manages the Unlock Tampa Bay Visitor Center, oversees GET Tampa Bay, a destination training program that has reached over 5000 local hospitality employees and she takes on large scale projects for the organization.

Shawn Cheng

Whether it is making a business deal or creating a knowledge exchange, Shawn believes a purposefully designed event experience is a platform to make it happen.

 Throughout his career, Shawn has worked on programs ranging between 20-10,000 people, each with their unique objectives and challenges. In his current role at MCI Group Canada Inc., he is average 3-5 projects per year, some of them which require years of preparation and some with only a few weeks turnaround.

 As a self-claimed LEARNAHOLIC, Shawn has actively participated in conversation around event design, innovation, sustainability, and technology. Shawn is a Certified Meeting Professional (CMP), and a Certified Digital Event Strategist (DES).

Shawn currently serves as president for the PCMA (Professional Convention Management Association) Canada West chapter and was named “Planners of the Year” by Smart Meetings Magazine in 2019.

Doreen Burse

Doreen is responsible for leading Marriott’s U.S. & Canada Global Sales Organization of 200 sales professionals driving $18B in annual top line sales.  This team is responsible for representing Marriott’s 30 brands to our largest and most high valued B2B customers which include national Associations, multi-national & global Corporate accounts as well as group, Travel Management Companies (TMC’s), Retail & Wholesale Intermediary Partners.  Doreen is also responsible for ensuring the execution of Marriott’s luxury sales strategy.

Serving for more than 30 years at Marriott, Doreen’s experience is broad ranging.  She held a variety of leadership positions in finance, procurement, branded concepts and global sales, most recently as Vice President, Global Sales, Corporate Accounts.

Doreen is a mentor to many, a training facilitator for Marriott’s Sales School and a frequent industry panel speaker.  She is a member of Global Business Travel Association (GBTA – Alternative Payments Committee 2016-2018), Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE – US Council Member 2014-2016), Meeting Professionals International (MPI – Global Board of Trustees, Foundation Board Member 2016 -2018), Professional Convention Management Association (PCMA), AMC Institute (Board of Directors, Associate Member- 2018, 2019, 2020) & WINiT (Women in Travel & Meetings) & Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International (HSMAI). She also actively supports several industry organizations including Meetings Competitive Advantage Forum (MCAF) & American Society of Association Executives (ASAE).

Lee Hillson

Chef Lee started with Royal Palms in 2000 as T. Cook’s Restaurant Sous Chef. In 2003, he quickly became the Executive Sous Chef. Just a few short years later, in 2005, Chef Lee became the Executive Chef until his final year in 2012. Over his years here at Royal Palms, Chef Lee hosted many James Beard dinners and kept T. Cook’s a highly regarded resort to dine at, which is evident in the many acknowledgments through reader polls and awards. He also gained nation acclaim for his battle with Iron Chef Cat Cora on the blockbuster Food Network show, Iron Chef America.

Keneisha Williams

Keneisha Williams is an event planning professional with nearly 10 years of experience in both the corporate and not-for-profit events. Her repertoire includes conferences, roadshows, festivals, workshops, hack-a-thons, seminars, meetings, trade shows, town halls, pop-ups, fundraisers, fashion shows, and virtual meetings.

Williams founded and managed SHESOFAB, a company that empowered women through events and online content from 2010 to 2015, and this year, she is working on a marketing events hub to socially strengthen through wellness and personal development initiatives.

Corey McCarthy

Corey McCarthy has more than twenty years of experience in media and tech. As Socio’s Chief Marketing Officer, Corey and her team bring event organizers impactful tech and thought leadership that truly delivers success.

In her former life, Corey ran a portfolio brand for Penton Media, and has extensive insights into all facets of the event, digital media, and publishing businesses.

Aja Bradley Kemp

Aja Bradley Kemp is a marketer and experiential event designer who has spent over 20 years growing consumer, lifestyle, and tech brands in the United States and international markets including Expedia, MAC Cosmetics, Sunglass Hut, and Reebok. A natural connector, she loves bringing people together and is fueled by the impact technology has on the way we interact socially.

Aja founded Conversate Collective, a brand experience agency, to help brands develop lasting relationships with their audience through the power of shared experiences. The enjoyment she gets from bringing people together coupled with her personal mission to get the perfect curl, led her to create Love My Curls Festival, the first beauty event celebrating women in Australia & New Zealand with curly and textured hair.

Karolyn L. Kiburz, CMP

Since 1988, MCS founder, Karolyn Kiburz, has been a meeting planner, receiving her Certified Meeting Professional (CMP) designation in 1992.

Using her extensive experience with meetings and events of all sizes, she has spearheaded the planning and execution of national conventions for up to 3,000+ attendees.

The largest local event MCS has planned is the Scottsdale Culinary Festival – a nationally recognized event attracting more than 40,000 people.

 Karolyn graduated from Arizona State University with a degree in Recreation/Tourism. She is past President of the Arizona Sunbelt Chapter of Meeting Professionals International (1998-99) and was awarded “Planner of the Year” from the Arizona Sunbelt Chapter of MPI in 1996. Karolyn is also a member of the Fiesta Bowl Committee since 1999 and was also on the Board of Directors of Scottsdale Leadership (Class XXIII).

Elena Clowes

Elena is currently a Creative Producer for award winning agency Cheerful Twentyfirst, working on projects from creative pitch stage through to onsite and virtual delivery. She translates brand and campaign strategy into the live and online environment. Elena is also co-founder of Event First Steps, an initiative designed to help industry newcomers forge their own career paths.

Lizzy Williamson

Dubbed by the media as ‘the excuse-buster from Down-Under’, Lizzy Williamson makes exercise easy. She is the founder and author of Two Minute Moves – quick virtual movement breaks that companies and events around the world use to ensure attendees stay engaged, safe and have a smile on their face, with clients including KFC, Chep, Westpac Bank and Social Media Examiner. She is the regular “fitness guru” on the Today Show and Studio 10 and her Two Minute Moves have been featured on Good Morning America, Lorna Jane, Women’s Health, Prevention and many more. www.twominutemoves.com

Chris Shipton

Chris Shipton is a cartoonist and a graphic recorder. He visualises meetings and events across the world for many big brands using a big bit of paper and a pen. His mission is to bring meetings to life through engaging visuals.

Career highlights include drawing at the COP 21 Climate Conference in Paris, illustrating a meeting on the eve of BREXIT at the European Parliament and drawing for a BBC News Facebook Live during an election (and the torrent of online ‘feedback’ in the comments).

Chris will be remotely supporting this meeting, creating graphic summaries of the topics discussed throughout.

Julius Solaris

Julius Solaris is the editor in chief of EventMB. Started in 2007, EventMB is the number one online platform for event professionals. EventMB was acquired in 2019 by Skift, the largest and most influential travel media company worldwide.

He has been named one of the most influential individuals in the meetings industry by many magazines and media for the past 10 years.

Julius has conducted some of the most groundbreaking research for the event industry. Over 3,000 events reviewed and 15,000 event professionals interviewed.

Julius’ analysis and reports have been downloaded by over 300,000 event professionals. 300,000 more read EventMB every month. Julius has been keynote for events in 12 countries and for over 200,000 attendees.

Sabrina Meyers

Sabrina Meyers is an independent event planner and founder of Hot Hospitality Exchange, her brand and platform where she creates visual content from a MICE and event planners’ perspective mainly on Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn as well as Facebook and Twitter. She’s also co-founder of newly launched social media creative agency, Two Social Media Chicks which consults with clients in the events, hospitality and lifestyle on social media content creation, coaching, marketing and strategy. She’s a very active voice in the global events community and big believer in creative collaboration and all things #eventprofs related!

Heidi Legein

Heidi Legein is the founder and Chief Executive Guru at The MICE guru, a full service destination management company consulting in – and producing all types of MICE events for global brands choosing Norway as their destination.
With an innovative and sustainable approach, The MICE guru matches companies to tailored ideas, experiences and locations in Norway, rather than selling places, venues and products.

Heidi is an active member of the #eventprofs community, recently launched #eventprofswalk to help peers stay positive and active and has been a front runner in reinventing the DMC value proposition.
Her biggest Covid-19 achievements include having dinner on the couch without spoiling food and adding virtual – as well as hybrid destination experiences to her company’s portfolio.

She is always ready to activate an audience on social media and has recently been baptised “the face of Norway” thanks to the online visibility of her brand.